What do the new ‘gay gen’ tell about sexual orientatn? | New Scientist

Contents:

• GENE LONDON, CHILDREN’S TV SHOW HOST AND OUT GAY ADVOTE, HAS DIED
• NO 'GAY GENE', BUT STUDY FDS GEIC LKS TO SEXUAL BEHAVR
• NO SGLE GENE ASSOCIATED WH BEG GAY
• THE REAL STORY ON GAY GEN
• WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?
• THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE

GENE LONDON, CHILDREN’S TV SHOW HOST AND OUT GAY ADVOTE, HAS DIED

Out gay man Gene London, the celebrated host of “Cartoon Corners” aka “The Gene London Show” om 1959-77 died Sunday, Jan. C., the March on Washgton for Lbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberatn drew an timated 1 ln participants, and the famo Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ary policy went to effect. It was a time when no printial ndidate dare speak of gay marriage or LGBTQ protectns.

Many LGBTQ folks were still closeted and beg gay was still parad as sexual perversn by the right-wg and others. LONDON (Rters) - A large scientific study to the blogil basis of sexual behavr has nfirmed there is no sgle “gay gene” but that a plex mix of geics and environment affects whether a person has same-sex sexual rearch, which analyzed data on DNA and sexual experienc om almost half a ln people, found there are thoands of geic variants lked to same-sex sexual behavr, most wh very small of the geic markers were “signifintly” associated wh same-sex behavr, the rearchers said, but even the are far om beg predictive of a person’s sexual preferenc. ”Sexual rights mpaigners weled the study, sayg “provis even more evince that beg gay or lbian is a natural part of human life”.

NO 'GAY GENE', BUT STUDY FDS GEIC LKS TO SEXUAL BEHAVR

“This new rearch also re-nfirms the long tablished unrstandg that there is no nclive gree to which nature or nurture fluence how a gay or lbian person behav, ” said Zeke Stok of the U. In theory, humans and other animals who are exclively attracted to others of the same sex should be unlikely to produce many blogil children, so any gen that predispose people to homosexualy would rarely be passed on to future generatns. Yet same-sex attractn is wispread humans, and rearch suggts that is partly a study of data om hundreds of thoands of people, rearchers have now intified geic patterns that uld be associated wh homosexual behavur, and showed how the might also help people to fd different-sex mat, and reproduce.

NO SGLE GENE ASSOCIATED WH BEG GAY

The thors say their fdgs, published on 23 Augt Nature Human Behavur1, uld help to expla why gen that predispose people to homosexualy ntue to be passed down. None of the variatns seemed to greatly affect sexual behavur on s own, backg up prev rearch that has found no sign of a ‘gay gene’.

Most of the participants were born durg a time when homosexualy was eher illegal or culturally taboo their untri, so many people who were attracted to others of the same sex might never have actually acted on their attractn, and uld therefore have end up the wrong group the Monk, an elogist and evolutnary blogist at Yale Universy New Haven, Connecticut, thks that the veats are so important that the paper n’t draw any real nclns about geics and sexual orientatn.

Instead, he thks the rearchers have found geic markers associated wh openns to new experienc, which uld expla the overlap between people who have had a homosexual partner and heterosexual people who have had many partners. And he adms that g a sgle homosexual experience as an ditn of sexual orientatn isn’t ial, but says that the UK Bbank didn’t provi data on attractn. Image source, Getty ImagA geic analysis of almost half a ln people has nclud there is no sgle "gay gene" study, published Science, ed data om the UK Bbank and 23andMe, and found some geic variants associated wh same-sex geic factors acunted for, at most, 25% of same-sex behavur.

THE REAL STORY ON GAY GEN

Advocy group GLAAD said the study nfirmed "no nclive gree to which nature or nurture fluenced how a gay or lbian person behav. "There is no sgle gay gene, and a geic tt for if you're gog to have a same-sex relatnship is not gog to work. "Fah Sathirapongsasuti, senr scientist at 23andMe, add; "This is a natural and normal part of the variatn our speci and that should also support precisely the posn that we shouldn't try and velop gay 'curism'.

"David Curtis, honorary profsor at the UCL Geics Instute, Universy College London, said: "This study clearly shows that there is no such thg as a 'gay gene'.

"Even if homosexualy is not geilly termed, as this study shows, that do not mean that is not some way an nate and dispensable part of an dividual's personaly. "Zeke Stok, om the LGBT media advocy anisatn GLAAD, said: "This new rearch re-nfirms the long-tablished unrstandg that there is no nclive gree to which nature or nurture fluence how a gay or lbian person behav.

WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?

Some nservativ argue that homosexualy is a personal choice or the rult of environmental fluenc. Some gay rights activists sist that homosexualy is geic, hopg that proof om that doma will lead to greater acceptance.

Still others, backg the same e, disurage any vtigatn to the blogil origs of sexual orientatn, fearful that posive rults will lead to attempts to rid the world of potential homosexuals. For them, the disvery of how an dividual be gay is likely to shed light on how sexualy-related gen build bras, how people of any persuasn are attracted to each other, and perhaps even how homosexualy evolved.

Hamer had jt published a study that claimed not only to have fally proved that male homosexualy was at least partially geic but also to have ppoted the stretch of chromosome where one of the gen volved rid. Hamer and his lleagu nducted extensive terviews wh 76 pairs of gay brothers and their fay members and found that homosexualy seemed to be hered through the maternal le.

THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE

Studi have shown that women rpond to all typ of sexual pictns—not only heterosexual and homosexual imag but even those of chimpanze havg sex. There he did rearch on the X chromosome, wh hop of someday fdg the gay gene or gen themselv.

Fourteen years later, neher Bocklandt nor any other rearcher has ppoted the precise base pairs that might turn a man gay. For a long perd NIH grant proposals that clud words like “gay, ” “ndom, ” or even “sexualy” were turned down, much to the ire of rearchers like Hamer.